The nomadic runes that mapped an empire's golden age

Cultures · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Before the modern Turkic languages existed, a sophisticated script carved into stone and bronze recorded the rise of great khaganates. From 8th-century Mongolia to the Balkans, these 'Turkic runes' served as more than just letters; they were instruments of statecraft, recording epic histories and divine origins.

The Old Turkic script—variously known as Göktürk or Orkhon script—flourished between the 8th and 10th centuries. While contemporary Chinese sources from the 7th century offer conflicting accounts on whether the Turks possessed a written language, many scholars believe the script was invented under the first khagans. It was likely modeled after the Sogdian fashion, potentially deriving from Aramaic via Pahlavi or Sogdian alphabets. Although some speculated that livestock brands (tamgas) influenced its design, this theory remains unverified and largely rejected by experts.

The script's geography is vast, with variants found in Mongolia, Siberia, the Altai Mountains, Xinjiang, and even as far west as the Balkans. A key distinction exists between the Orkhon inscriptions—mostly official epitaphs and graffiti found in the Orkhon Valley—and 9th-century manuscripts from Xinjiang. These later texts represent Old Uyghur, a different dialect than that used by the Göktürks. Notable monuments include the obelisks of Kül Tigin and Bilge Kağan (732–735), which recount the Turks' legendary origins and their liberation from Chinese subjugation.

Linguistically, Old Turkic is a synharmonic language, meaning certain consonants change based on whether they precede front or back vowels. This led to a unique system where some signs functioned like an abugida, with scholars using superscript numerals (introduced by Vilhelm Thomsen in 1893) to distinguish between these vowel sets. Today, the script is preserved digitally in the Unicode standard as of 2009, allowing modern researchers to decode the epic language of the steppe.

The corpus consists of about two hundred inscriptions and several manuscripts. These records provide a rare window into nomadic life, covering everything from divination (as seen in the Irk Bitig) to legal subjects and religious texts including Manichaeism and Buddhism.

General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.

Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?

Related

• Blue Turks built the first pan-steppe Turkic khaganate
• The Turkic expansion was not a single wave but a complex, centuries-long cultural diffusion
• The vertical script that flows like a river from top to bottom
• The Eastern Turkic Khaganate rose from a blacksmith slave's rebellion to dominate the steppe.
• How a nomadic Turkic confederation redefined the cultural landscape of medieval Central Asia
• Omagh: How the Virgin Plain became a town of shifting identities and deep history
• The Viking language that shaped modern English and spanned from Vinland to the Volga
• From failed A-level student to West End star: the improbable rise of Omid Djalili
• The lost epic poetry of Charlemagne was destroyed by his own son
• Can a letter to an illiterate mother redefine the boundaries of the modern novel?
• The assembly of freemen: tracing the roots of Ireland's parliament
• The One Ring was not just a plot device, but a vessel of malevolence

More in Languages · More in Cultures · Latest · A–Z · All topics